Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of the problem of urban prostitution in Russia in the 2nd half of the 19th – the early 20th cent. in the example of the district city of Rybinsk, located in Yaroslavl Province. Based on the analysis of unpublished archival sources and materials of the local periodical press, prostitution has for the first time been considered as a socio-cultural phenomenon of Rybinsk urban everyday life. The paper presents statistical indicators of Rybinsk prostitution, examines the places and conditions of residence, as well as the social status of public women. The circumstances of entering the profession and the possibility of giving it up are studied; the activities of female prostitutes’ keepers and the socio-cultural environment that had developed around prostitution as a phenomenon of urban life are analysed. In the 1840s, prostitution in Russia was legalised and got under the supervision of the police. In Rybinsk, there was a medical and police commission, which, in order to reduce the number of sexually transmitted diseases, controlled the registration of women of easy virtue, organising medical examinations, the issuance of permits for the opening of brothels. During the navigation period, the influx of prostitutes to Rybinsk was significant and exceeded the provincial city of Yaroslavl by this indicator. Public women lived in brothels, apartments or stayed with their keepers, who made an important item of their income from this. The conditions of such a life included hardship, but provincial women preferred that to a half-starved existence. The criminogenic situation prevailing in Rybinsk brothels contributed to the commission of a variety of offences. Most prostitutes came from lower social groups. Being caught in secret prostitution led to a change in the social status and restriction of women’s personal freedom. The exit from the number of prostitutes was possible after the approval of the police authorities.
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